Business Espionage: Corn Spy Pops

Security for Dupont Pioneer’s cornfields in Iowa suspected something when they detected men crawling around in the cornfields, and alerted the FBI two years ago. 

Now, one man — Chinese citizen Mo Hailong — has admitted to attempted kernel theft.
Mo was a part of a conspiracy to smuggle U.S. corn from producers Dupont Pioneer and Monsanto in Iowa and ship it to China, where scientists would attempt to replicate the corn’s genetic properties. Prosecutors accused Mo of working with others in the group Kings Nower Seed, a subsidiary of the Beijing Dabeinong Technology Group, the Associated Press reports. more

Spies Accused of Winging It, or A Very Sordid Sortie

Israel Nature and Parks Authority officials are pleading for the release of a vulture after residents of a southern Lebanese town captured the bird, claiming it was being used for spying. 

Lebanese media reported that the bird – allegedly carrying Israeli spy equipment -- was caught Tuesday to prevent it from attacking citizens in the town of Bint Jbail, according to the Jerusalem Post...

Israeli officials said the bird was released in the Gamla Nature Reserve about a month ago after arriving from Spain in 2015. The bird, outfitted with a transmitter, was brought to Israel in hopes to increase its local population, the officials added. more

P.S. They came to their senses and released the vulture.

Even Antiquarian Book Shops are Less Suspicious

A Canadian citizen who ran a coffee shop near the sensitive China-North Korea border has been charged with spying by Beijing after being kept in detention for more than a year.


Kevin Garratt... “has been accused of spying and stealing China's state secrets”, state news agency Xinhua said, citing “authorities”.

"During the investigation, Chinese authorities also found evidence which implicates Garratt in accepting tasks from Canadian espionage agencies to gather intelligence in China," Xinhua reported. more

The Defend Trade Secrets Act of 2015

Prepared Statement by Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa
Chairman, Senate Judiciary Committee
Executive Business Meeting

The next bill on the agenda is S.1890, the Defend Trade Secrets Act of 2015, introduced by Senators Hatch and Coons.

As we learned in a recent Committee hearing, while state trade secret laws provide U.S. companies many protections, at times these laws are inadequate.

The threats trade secret owners face are coming from thieves who are able to quickly travel across state lines and who use technology to aid their misappropriation. In many cases, the existing patch-work of state laws governing trade secret theft presents difficult procedural hurdles for victims who must seek immediate relief.

Further, the pace of trade secret theft is mounting and federal law enforcement authorities don’t have the bandwidth to prosecute but a fraction of cases. This means that victims of trade secret theft cannot rely on criminal enforcement, making a civil cause of action an effective way to go after the perpetrators.

The Defend Trade Secrets Act would amend the Economic Espionage Act of 1996 to create a federal civil remedy for trade secret misappropriation, allowing for a uniform national standard without preempting state law. The bill would provide clear rules and predictability for trade secret cases. Victims will be able to move quickly to federal court, with certainty of the rules, standards, and practices to stop trade secrets from being disseminated and losing their value. By improving trade secret protection, this bill will also help to incentivize future innovation.

Additionally, Ranking Member Leahy and I will be offering an amendment to help protect whistleblowers. more

Security Director Alert: Check your board and conference rooms for equipment made by AMX

Lots of companies -- and even the White House -- use a conference calling system that could possibly be tapped by hackers, according to new research.

On Thursday, cybersecurity experts at SEC Consult revealed a secret doorway that's built into a popular conference calling product built by a company called AMX.

AMX makes tablet panels used to control conference calls for businesses, government agencies and universities.

The company hard-coded backdoor access into its system. AMX created a "secret account" with a permanent username and password, which means a hacker who already sneaked into a computer network could tap into actual meetings, if the hacker knew the backdoor access code.

It's a glaring security hole. more

Murray Associates Recommendation
A firmware update is available for products and systems incorporating the NetLinx NX Control platform:

NX Series Controllers NX-4200 FG2106-04 NX-3200 FG2106-03 NX-2200 FG2106-02 NX-1200 FG2106-01	Massio® ControlPads MCP-106 FG2102-06X-X MCP-108 FG2102-08-X
Enova® DVX All-in-One Presentation Switchers DVX-3256HD FG1906-22/24 DVX-3255HD FG1906-16/18 DVX-3250HD FG1906-15/17 DVX-2250HD FG1906-11/13 DVX-2255HD FG1906-12/14 DVX-2210HD FG1906-07/09

Firmware downloads require a current login and password for the AMX Account Center to access the protected Technical Documentation and Support Materials sections of the AMX by HARMAN website. Technical Support Staff within End User organizations should contact their authorized AMX Dealer or HARMAN Professional representative for assistance.

More Banksy Art, from Artsy

I received this email today and thought you might like to know...

Hi - my name is Oliver, and I work at Artsy. While researching Banksy, I found your page: http://spybusters.blogspot.com/2014_06_01_archive.html. I wanted to briefly tell you about Artsy's Banksy page, and about our mission.

Click to enlarge.

We strive to make all of the world’s art accessible to anyone online. Our Banksy page, for example, provides visitors with Banksy's bio, over 150 of his works, exclusive articles, as well as up-to-date Banksy exhibition listings. The page even includes related artist & category tags, plus suggested contemporary artists, allowing viewers to continue exploring art beyond our Banksy page.

Glad to help!
Here is another Banksy anti-surveillance piece of art.

Radar Rat, 2004
Spray paint and silkscreen on paper
14 × 14 in
35.6 × 35.6 cm
Gallery Nosco
Sold
£20,000 - 30,000 ($28,500 - $42,800)

World's Largest Bugging Device Hears What You Can't... and it may save our butts!

This desolate outpost in remotest Greenland is home to one of the world's most high-tech listening devices, tasked with saving humanity from itself.

Located along the coastline just outside the village of Qaanaaq – which bears the additional distinction of being the world's most northerly palindrome – the sole purpose of Infrasound station IS18 consists of listening to the planet's groans that occur at frequencies too low for the human ear to detect, occurring within the range of 20 Hz down to 0.001 Hz.

Click to enlarge.

Qaaanaaq's eight-element array is divided into two sub-arrays bolstered by wind reduction technology, all of which are linked to a Central Processing Facility (or CPF) that churns out data around-the-clock to a central terminal in Qaanaaq proper. But why put such an extremely space-age device in a village accessible only by helicopter, whose locals subsist largely on narwhal, seals, and polar bears?

In its most practical application, IS18 is part of a network of highly specialized sensors charged with monitoring the globe for atomic blasts, as set forth by the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO). Around the clock, the array monitors the entire world for distinctive blast patterns produced by such explosions, as their unique pattern of ultra-low frequency sound waves persist even when ricocheting through the Earth's surface. more

Fibre Optic Eavesdropping Tap Alarm

Allied Telesis, announced that it has released an innovative security measure to prevent eavesdropping on fibre communications, 

Active Fiber Monitoring. The patent-pending technology can detect when a cable is being tampered with, and will raise an alarm to warn of a possible security breach.

Fibre-optic links are used extensively for long-range data communications and are also a popular choice within the LAN environment. One of the perceived advantages of fiber is that eavesdropping on traffic within the cable is not possible. However, it is now possible to acquire devices that can snoop traffic on fiber cables; and even more disturbing is that these devices are readily available and very easy to use.

Active Fiber Monitoring, a technology that detects small changes in the amount of light received on a fibre link. When an intrusion is attempted, the light level changes because some of the light is redirected by the eavesdropper onto another fibre. As soon as this happens, Active Fiber Monitoring detects the intrusion and raises the alarm. The link can either be shut down automatically, or an operator can be alerted and manually intervene. more

VoIP Software Used to Eavesdrop

The backdoor could allow agents, employers or third parties to listen in on conversations...

The GCHQ has developed VoIP encryption tools with a built-in backdoor, allowing both authorities and third parties to listen in on conversations.

The backdoor is embedded into the MIKEY-SAKKE encryption protocol and has a 'key escrow' built in, allowing those with authority - whether an employer or government agency - to access it if a warrant or request is made.

The backdoor was uncovered by Dr Steven Murdoch, a security researcher from the University of London, who wrote a blog about the potential snooping tool. more

Ex-San Diego Mayor Bob Filner alleges his office was bugged...

Former San Diego Mayor Bob Filner, in an interview this week, denied having sexually harassed women and claimed that his City Hall office had been bugged...

...later in the interview, he said he had "found a bug" in his office that he claimed was planted there by the city attorney. "We asked the police to look at it and they didn't want to or didn't do it," he said.

Former Police Chief Bill Lansdowne disputed that claim Tuesday, saying Filner's chief of staff approached him with the concern that there might be a recording device in the mayor's office.

Lansdowne worked with the department's intelligence unit, hired an outside company to sweep Filner's office for bugs and came up empty-handed, the former police chief said.

"We had that office checked and we came back negative. They did not find anything," Lansdowne said. more

The Top Private Investigators on Twitter in 2015

via PINow.com...
We are happy to release the Top Private Investigators on Twitter in 2015! We received a lot of nominations and saw plenty of excitement, so thank you for your participation!

Twitter is a great tool for interacting with peers, sharing legislation updates, related news, business tips, promoting associations, and more. We present this list every year to recognize those in the industry who have proved to be valuable resources to their peers, specifically on the topic of investigations. Congratulations to all 2015 list-makers!

The list is ranked based on a variety of criteria, including nominations, scores on social media sites like Retweetrank, Klout, and StatusPeople, and on scores for content, consistent activity, and more.

Thank you!
Kevin

Why an RFID-blocking Wallet is Something You Don't Need

via Roger A. Grimes
You don't need a tinfoil hat, either. Opportunists have exploited consumer fears to create an industry that doesn't need to exist...

(summary)

First and foremost, does your credit card actually have an RFID transmitter? The vast majority does not. Have you ever been told you can hold up your credit card to a wireless payment terminal, and without inserting your card, pay for something? For most of my friends, and the world in general, the answer is no...

If you look at the number of credit cards with RFID, you can’t even represent it statistically. It’s not 0 percent, but it’s so far below 1 percent that it might as well be 0 percent...

On top of that, most of the world is going to wireless payments using your mobile device...

But did that bad guy ever sit on the corner in the first place? Sure, I’ve seen the demos, but I’ve yet to hear of one criminal who was caught using an RFID sniffer or who admitted to stealing credit card info wirelessly. We know about all sorts of cyber crime. Why not the theft of RFID credit card information if the risk is so high?

Here's why: It would be a lousy use of a criminal mastermind’s time. Today’s smart criminals break into websites and steal hundreds of thousands to tens of millions of credit cards at a time. Why would a criminal go to the effort and expense of stealing credit card info one card at a time when you can steal a million in one shot?  more

Did Your Lame Password Make the Top 25 List for 2015?

Here are the most popular passwords found in data leaks during the year, according to SplashData:

1. 123456
2. password
3. 12345678
4. qwerty
5. 12345
6. 123456789
7. football
8. 1234
9. 1234567
10. baseball
11. welcome
12. 1234567890
13. abc123
14. 111111
15. 1qaz2wsx
16. dragon
17. master
18. monkey
19. letmein
20. login
21. princess
22. qwertyuiop
23. solo
24. passw0rd
25. starwars 
    more 

Your Old Wi-Fi Router May Be Security Screwed

...starting from the day you bought it.
 
The reason: A component maker had included the 2002 version of Allegro’s software with its chipset and hadn’t updated it. Router makers used those chips in more than 10 million devices. The router makers said they didn’t know a later version of Allegro’s software fixed the bug.
 
The router flaw highlights an enduring problem in computer security: Fixing bugs once they have been released into the world is sometimes difficult and often overlooked. The flaw’s creator must develop a fix, or “patch.” Then it often must alert millions of technically unsophisticated users, who have to install the patch.

The chain can break at many points: Patches aren’t distributed. Users aren’t alerted or neglect to apply the patch. Hackers exploit any weak link. more

Four Textbook Business Espionage Case Histories

This past year, the FBI has observed a stark increase (53%!) in the amount of corporate espionage cases within the United States... the FBI has pointed out that a major concern in corporate espionage today are “insider threats” – essentially, employees who are knowledgeable of confidential matters are being recruited by competitor companies, and foreign governments in exchange for large amounts of money at much higher rates than ever before. 

Walter Liew vs. DuPont – “titanium dioxide”
In July 2014, Walter Liew, a chemical engineer from California, pleaded guilty to selling DuPont’s super secret pigment formula that makes cars, paper, and a long list of other everyday items whiter to China.

Starwood vs. Hilton
In 2009, Starwood Hotels accused Hilton Hotels of recruiting executives out from under them and stealing confidential materials... Starwood alleged that the ex-employees had stolen more than 10,000 documents and delivered them to Hilton – the worst part being that Starwood didn’t even notice that the documents were missing until after the indictment.

Microsoft vs. Oracle
In June 1999, Oracle hired a detective agency called Investigative Group International (IGI) to spy on Microsoft – it was headed by a former Watergate investigator, if that says anything... IGI, following Oracle’s orders, sifted through Microsoft’s trash (a practice also known as Dumpster Diving)...

The following May, the same happened. This time, IGI focused its investigations on the Association for Competitive Technology, a trade group; IGI arranged for a random woman to bribe ACT’s cleaning crew with $1,200 in exchange for bringing any office trash to an office nearby – of course, the office was a front for IGI.

Steven Louis Davis vs. Gillette
In 1997, Steven Louis Davis, an engineer helping Gillette develop its new shaving system, was caught faxing and emailing technical drawings to four of Gillette’s competitors...

Sadly, these economic espionage cases aren’t shocking to most corporate executives; it’s not uncommon for rivalry companies to dumpster dive, hack, bribe, and hire away key employees. In a rush to push out new products, major corporations will do just about anything to defame their competitors. And, although a few of these cases stem from the 1990s, their spirit still holds today – as the FBI has noted that corporate espionage is no where near slowing down.  more